"The Senate Thursday defeated 53-47 an effort to limit the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and President Barack Obama said the vote was a reminder of the need to pass more comprehensive climate change legislation.

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski's measure was backed by six Democrats and all 41 Republicans. Had Congress passed it, the White House said earlier this week Obama would have vetoed it any way, adding the proposal would undermine efforts to promote alternatives to fossil fuels, especially as a broken BP well continues to spew as much as 50,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico every day.

Murkowski's proposal "would have increased our dependence on oil by blocking efforts to cut the harmful pollution that contributes to climate change," Obama said in a statement. "The Senate chose to move America forward, towards that clean energy economy - not backward to the same failed policies."

The Senate spent six hours debating Murkowski's measure, which came up in a rarely used procedural move known as a disapproval resolution."